Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1939)

Many Free Films At World Fair (Continued from page 5) ens of features that have depicted many critical stages through which the country has passed. Its running time is now estimated at 120 minutes, although this may finally be shortened. In the same auditorium will be shown “The River” and “The Plow That Broke the Plains.” There may also be a series of historical shorts on view in the Federal Building Theatre. In the New York City Building provisions have been made for pictures dealing with activities of various branches of the municipal government. These will be on view in a 200-seat theatre. In the Hall of Pharmacy, where there is a 200-seat auditorium, films will be presented dealing with drug services. Considerable early interest has been shown in the two-reel Technicolor short titled “Pete Roleum and His Cousins,” which will be exhibited in the Petroleum Industry’s Building’s 200-seat hall. The short is said to be of a novel experimental nature and may point the way toward an innovation in the field of fantasy films. A group of craftsmen under Joe Losey have utilized rubber dolls as characters and placed them on three-dimensional sets of a fantastic complexion. The story has to do with the importance of petroleum in the world, and is demonstrated by the puppets, which are made to appear as animated drops of oil. Hanns Eisler and Oscar Levant supplied the special musical score. Amphitheatre Is Tops Topping the list of auditoriums or amphitheatres that have an aggregate of about 30,000 seats, all of which will cost visitors an admission charge ranging from 10 cents up to an undetermined high, is the Fountain Lake Amphitheatre with 10,000 seats. This will house the much-publicized “Aquacade,” produced by Billy Rose, who has not yet set the boxoffice scale. Open air operas, pageants and extravaganzas will be sandwiched in between the “Aquacade” on what is claimed to be the world’s largest stage. The stage is about 180 feet wide and embraces a 70-foot revolving platform. It is separated from the mainland by 60 feet of water. A general admission charge of 40 cents has been set for “The Cavalcade of Centaurs,” which occupies six and a half acres of ground and includes a grandstand and bleachers seating 7,000. An elaborate pageant, under the direction of John Ringling North, will be the main attraction. It will be known as “The Rough Riders of the World,” and will employ about 300 performers and some 150 animals. The general effect of the layout will be that of a boom town of the gold rush days. The 2,500-seat World’s Fair Music Hall will feature the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York, the official Fair orchestra. There will be opera performances later in the season. The numerous concerts to be staged there will be under the batons of Dr. Walter Damrosch, John Barbirolli, Georges Enesco and Burle Marx. The boxoffice scale has not been fixed. The Men’s Apparel Quality Guild will have an auditorium seating 2,500. This is an open arena that will accommodate all types of sports from baseball to cycling events. There will also be six lecturedemonstrations daily. The scale here likewise has been delayed. Charge for Some There will be a 25 cents admission charge to the 4.000-seat enclosed amphitheatre that will house the “Railroads on Parade” pageant in the Eastern Presidents’ Conference Building. This is the Fair’s largest exhibit hall, the large rotunda of which simulates a railroad yard. In the same building will be enacted, in small scale, "The Story of Railroad Operation” in an enclosure seating 1,000. The charge here will be 10 cents. The entire production is said to represent the largest scale open air drama ever devised. The show, which covers an area of five and one-half acres, will be put on four times daily. The Goodrich Tire and Rubber Co. has provided 1,200 seats over its outdoor auditorium in which spectators may view gratis a series of daredevil stunts. There will be 1,000 seats available, possibly with a small admission charge, at the Standard Brands exhibit. The chairs Universal Budget Up $5,000,000 (Continued from page 23) “The Oregon Trail,” with John Mack Brown. “Buck Rogers Conquering the Universe,” with Larry Crabbe. Described as an innovation for 13 special two-reel musicals is the intent to utilize this medium for the introduction of new talent as a stepping stone to feature work. Other shorts series include: Thirteen new special color cartoons. Fifteen each of the “Going Places” and “Stranger Than Fiction” series. “The March of Freedom,” a special tworeeler. One hundred and four issues of the newsreel. In a special category is “combination show,” a reissue of “My Man Godfrey” and “The Old Dark House.” Stars who appear in these pictures include Carole Lombard, William Powell. Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Mischa Auer and Raymond Massey. In addition to Scully and Blumberg, home office representatives attending the local gatherings are Joseph H. Seidelman, vice-president in charge of foreign affairs; Frank J. A. McCarthy, eastern sales manager; William J. Heineman, western sales manager; F. Tom Murray, Charles A. Kirby, Clarence Margon, James Jordan, Oscar C. Binder, Andrew Sharick, Morris Alin and Louis Pollack. Other Attractions Offered Gratis are arranged in a landscaped, open-air auditorium where Standard’s Rudy Vallee radio show will perform on broadcast nights. Marionette shows will be featured in intervals. The Temple of Religion, seating 1,200, will have three salient aspects; convocations and meetings; music, pageants and dramas. All musical programs will be based on a religious motif. Seats, seats, and still more seats. Ranging from 55, in the Addressograph-Multigraph exhibit, to 600 in the Hall of Fashion, for which there will be no charge, or a very nominal admission, are the Equitable Life Assurance Society garden seating 250; Westinghouse’s 278-seat hall featuring dramas on the use of power; the Vanity Fair exhibit of 200 seats, with fashion shows as the main attraction; the WPA Building’s exhibit of some of the country’s leading artists, with an outdoor auditorium of 299 seats, and the Gas Exhibits Building, where there will be a Puppet Opera Show in a 250-seat hall. Into a nameless category go a number of other attractions. None of them makes provisions for seats, but is of such magnitude as to draw the interest of what Fair officials believe will ultimately constitute the majority of visitors. The Theme Focal Exhibit means the Perisphere, companion structure to the 700-foot Trylon. Access to the 18-story Perisphere will be by means of the two longest moving stairways ever built in this country. They will take visitors to an exhibit filling a space equal to two Radio City Music Halls. The stairways take six minutes to make a complete revolution of the show, with performances continuous from 10 a. m. to 10 p. m. Admission will be 25 cents. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. has provided an outdoor area for concerts that will accommodate 1,500 persons — standing room only. RCA and NBC have selected television as the theme of their exhibit. Every phase of radio art and industry will be covered, with viewing rooms that will accommodate 100 persons for the showing of radioed pictures, and viewing rooms that will hold about 160 persons, where visitors can see their friends televised. “Road of Tomorrow” A half-mile “Road of Tomorrow,” will feature the Ford Motor Co.’s exhibit. This will be in the form of a road that winds about a landscaped patio, rising in circular ramps to pass through the nave of the building. Visitors will tour this in cars. They also will be offered shaded tables and chairs, pools, fountains, and the music of a large orchestra. The Casino of Nations will serve the double purpose of providing dancing couples a glimpse of the sky on clear nights by way of a translucent canvas roof that folds, and a 1,500 seat restaurant arranged on terraces, with waiters from 12 different nations to enable patrons from foreign countries to order meals in their native tongues. 50 BOXOFFICE :: April 15, 1939